My Friend Dahmer (2017)
Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy. During his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he was to become.
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I watched this at home on DVD from my public library. I remember well the news of 1991 when he was arrested and confessed to the murder and dismemberment of 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991.This movie mostly covers his senior year in high school, 1978. Ross Lynch really gets himself into a Jeff Dahmer mood, especially with his posture and movements. He is depicted as an outcast mostly, and fascinated with the insides of living things, or recently dead like roadkill. Yet still willing to act crazy in public places just for the effect it would have on others.He wasn't helped by his dysfunctional family, with a crazy mother who divorced his dad during his senior year. It is hard to watch at times, knowing what he would become but it is a very interesting take on the subject.
This film helps us to understand something I've too often wondered about, which is how a serial killer got to the state of mind where he could act out his crimes. It humanizes Jeffry Dahmer from someone who was a monster, to someone who was a pathetic, unloved youngster who was unable to make loving connections with his family and fellow humankind. All told from someone who directly contributed to, and apparently regrets Dahmer's wretched condition, which makes the story all the more believable, heart-wrenching and horrific.
I enjoyed this twisted insight into the early life of Dahmer; however, it suffers a little from the light weight performances from his mother and father. Unfortunately, I thought of SNL during their scenes together.
It was a side to dahmer I never seen I gave it a 6 because I feel like it didn't go deep enough to his family situation but it was interesting to see him in school and his daily life that way.